Ace championed fighters

  • Published
  • By GUS VINAS
  • 56th Fighter Wing historian
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  During World War II, Maj. David Schilling got his fifth aerial victory in four missions and became a fighter ace Oct. 10, 1943. 

He scored 23 total aerial victories and was one of the top three aces in the 56th Fighter Group. 

Among those 23 kills were five aircraft he downed in a single mission, making him a member of a select group of eight pilots called ace. The term ace was designated to aviators who destroyed five or more enemy aircraft. 

Major Schilling became an ace, and 10 months later, at the age of 25, was promoted to full colonel. 

Some of Colonel Schilling's greatest contributions to the Air Force came after World War II when he served in the Pentagon and noticed there was no office dedicated to the fighter community. He helped bring fighters out of obscurity by presenting a plan to get public support for them to Gen. Carl Spatz, Chief of Staff of the Air Force. At the time he presented his plan, tensions with Germany were high and the Air Force was focused on bombers such as the B-50 and B-36. 

Colonel Schilling briefed General Spatz on his plan to make the first west-to-east crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a fighter aircraft. He knew the F-80 Shooting Star had wing tanks with a range of about 900 miles. He was to take off from the United States, fly to Iceland for refueling, fly to Scotland for another refueling and then fly on to Germany. 

It was a few short weeks after the Soviets established a blockade of Berlin that Colonel Schilling led a group of F-80s on the historic crossing of the Atlantic. The event put the Soviets on notice that the United States possessed the capability to deploy large packages of fighters long distances in a short time. 

Colonel Schilling's championing of the fighter community paved the way for the F-84 Thunderjet, the F-89 Scorpion, the F-94 Starfire and the F-86 Sabrejet. 

When the Korean Conflict broke out, the F-86 was still under development. After planners saw the performance of the MiG-15, a Russian jet fighter, they added swept wings to the F-86. The swept wings increased the jet's top speed by 100 miles per hour. 

The superior tactics and airmanship of Air Force pilots during the Korean Conflict resulted in a 12-to-1 kill ratio over the MiG-15, despite the MiG's higher top speed and ceiling. 

Today, the public's continued support for the fighter community resulted in the deployment of the F/A-22 Raptor and the soon-to-be-deployed F-35 Lightning II, an air-to-ground jet.